La tour - La "light" / The tower - The light

Cap-des-Rosiers was the fourth of ten major lighthouses, known as imperial towers, built in the mid-19th century in the Great Lakes and northern Gulf of St. Lawrence region in a fairly similar style. The first lighthouse in the Gaspé and the tallest ever built in Canada, it was designed by Public Works Chief Engineer John Page, while the construction contract went to Charles-Françoise-Xavier Baby. Work began in the summer of 1854 and ended, or almost, in 1856, with materials, men, and horses brought exclusively by boat because there were no easily practicable roads. The lamp and optical and lighting devices appear to have been installed in 1857, and the beacon was officially lit for the first time on March 15, 1858, casting one of the colony's most powerful beams over the sea. The entire project cost nearly $115,000. Before 1800, beacons were generally wood or charcoal fires set on headlands and were ineffective in rain or fog, so improved systems became necessary. Cap-des-Rosiers benefited from European advances in optics and lighting through the installation of a large French polished glass lens using a dioptric system, manufactured with its cast-iron cupola by the Paris firm Lepaute et Sautter. The light likely came from several small wick burners at the center of the lens, based on the Argand lamp perfected in 1780 by Aimé Argand and fueled by whale or porpoise oil. In the early 20th century, the Argand lamp was replaced by a petrol steam lamp, which remained in use for several years after the village was electrified around 1950. Today the light is electric, but the original optical device remains in use.

Quebec · Canada